I use Greweling’s coconut filling for some larger, ~20 gram molded pieces and like the filling with dark chocolate (too sweet for me to shell it with milk or white). I spoon it into the cavities and push it in with a finger. Don’t think it would be easy to pipe but please let me know what you did if you can make piping work.

I currently have the V2430. Had another one before that, model unknown, it lasted many years before I replaced it with my current model. It is just a basic Foodsaver you find at Costco, Walmart, etc.. I originally bought it to portion up and freeze the items that I got at Costco. Just so happens it also works for freezing bon bon and packaging up stuff for sous vide.

Cool, I have the same vacuum sealer Greweling does! And yes, I have used it to seal boxes of chocolates without issue. The moment I see the bag touching all visible sides of the box I hit the manual seal button, no chocolates harmed and a spiffy plastic layer to prevent freezer burn and condensation.

Thank you! There is always more that you can do to work clean... trust me, some days are better than others. A lot of it is practice and examining your workflow to figure out where you can do things better. Whenever you take a class or work with someone who you are impressed with see if you can figure out why what they are doing works so well and try to incorporate those techniques in you work.

I’m interested! Would be great to learn stuff that I have had little or no exposure too.
Love guava — lived in South Florida where every Cuban bakery had at least one pastry with guava or guava & cheese.

It would also be nice to have a discussion/session where we all share what we do with scraps, extras, re-work, etc..
What have people done to recover from mistakes? Have those turned into new products!

I woud like to learn about any of the following:
hard candy - where you jacket the colors to make two color twists or decorative patterns
filled hard candy - jacketing nut butters in hard candy
blown sugar / decorative sugar work
making fudge, not the kind that uses marshmallow

There will be an eGullet Chocolate and Confections workshop in May organized by @gfron1 of the soon to be open Bulrush. I'm flying in to STL Thursday the 16th and will try to get a reservation at Bulrush (once that system is in place), anyone else interested in joining me for dinner?